Effective Use Of Social Media Research Articles

Use of twitter and Facebook by top European museums

With social media becoming so pervasive, museums strive to adopt them for their own use. Effective use of social media especially Facebook and Twitter seems to be promising. Social media offer museums the possibility to engage audiences, potential and active visitors with their collections and ideas. Facebook and Twitter are the market leaders of social media. This paper records the top European museums and their Facebook and Twitter accounts. It records the use of the two media, and by applying statistical analysis it investigates whether Twitter use is in accordance to Facebook use. Findings reveal that this is not the case. By using Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis the paper finds that there is, however, a district group of top museums which manage to excel in both media mainly by adopting carefully planned strategies and paying attention to the potential and benefits that social media offer.

Knowledge, learning and development for success in the new business environment: an art and science approach

Purpose – In today’s world, organizational knowledge management has become much more important than ever before. Technological developments have made it relatively easy to collect and use almost unlimited data and information, but the ability to do so effectively and efficiently requires much more than a technical solution. Employees need the right skills and expertise to identify, interpret and apply relevant data and knowledge, and the organization must provide an overall environment that is supportive of and promotes data-driven activity, as well as the on-going learning and development that is necessary to underpin this. The paper explores some of these concepts. Design/methodology/approach – Findings based on a literature review and past projects. Findings – Transforming an organization for improved use of knowledge and learning can be expected to deliver far-reaching business benefits that justify the initial time and resources involved. Most importantly, the changes are likely to improve the firm’s ability not only to respond and adapt to changes in the business environment, but also to anticipate these in advance and stay one-step ahead of the competition. Practical implications – An organizational review around this topic should consider the following questions: Are the human resource management systems, such as the performance appraisal system and the rewards and recognition system, designed to promote the types of behaviors and outcomes associated with business success in the new environment? Are employees empowered to make data-informed decisions within their own areas of work, and to form trust-based relationships with internal and external stakeholders? Are the training and development systems effective in equipping employees with the various types of skills and expertise that are important in the new business environment? Do the organizations leaders and managers value, model and promote the values and behaviors now associated with business success, such as transparency, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making? Does the organizational structure support these values and behaviors, for example by encouraging team working or ease of communication with business partners? Are there systems and processes in place for effective storage, management, dissemination and use of both tacit and explicit knowledge? Does the organization have a good understanding of the hard and soft skillsnecessary for effective use of social media in achieving business objectives, and are these in place? Are job roles based on expected outcomes rather than task descriptions, thereby encouraging greater efficiency and effectiveness as employees take advantage of new information, emerging technologies and skills development? Does the company actively seek opportunities for collaboration both within the organization and with external stakeholders, and does it have established mechanisms or processes for communication and information sharing? Social implications – Companies who have adapted well to this new data-driven, trust-based environment see positive results: a major international business survey found that respondents who were strong, effective users of business information and analytics were twice as likely to be top performers in their industry compared with those who were not heavy users of information and data. Originality/value – Use of the “art and science” concept in examining this topic.

Europol sets sights on IS

The Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) has made very effective use of social media to recruit supporters and spread propaganda. Now that capability is being targeted by Europol, which has established a new police unit to find those responsible.

Beyond the Tweet

This study incorporated social media microblogging technology (Twitter) across disciplines to provide 411 first-year undergraduate students studying in large-classroom settings with opportunities to connect in real-time, both within and outside the classroom, with their professor, other students, and members of the professional community. This extension to the traditional teaching and learning environment gave students unique opportunities to enhance their university experience, both from engagement, learning and community-connectedness perspectives. Based on student outcomes and lessons learned, we provide educators with insights into the effective use of social media microblogging technology in a large-classroom format.

Technostress in ICT enabled collaborative learning environment: An empirical study among Indian academician

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming a fast changing and renewing technology for higher education industry. With the advancement of ICT tools and techniques, social media evolved as a prominent communications tool and found to be a facilitating tool for teaching and learning, particularly in the higher education. Thus, academic institutions and faculty are under pressure to use the social networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, to connect with students and to deliver instructional content. This has led to a rise in stress among academicians for efficient and effective use of social media and other ICT based tools for collaborative learning. This study analyzes the relationship between Technostress creators, Technostress Inhibitors and Technostress effect among Indian academician in collaborative teaching and learning environment using concepts of socio-technical theory and role. This research is conducted on 216 academicians in India through questionnaire based survey. The study found a strong relationship between Technostress creators, Technostress Inhibitors and Technostress effect.

Community change: Water management through the use of social media, the case of Australia's Murray-Darling Basin

Social media can influence behavior, disseminate knowledge and impact on social change during times of conflict. Communication literature is important when considering community members’ perception of priority areas of the media, however, limited attention has focused on communication theory in depth, through the use of Social Media. This qualitative study explores the Australian Government Department, The Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and their effective use of social media to engage with a community previously in conflict with the Government.

The Impact of Social Networks and Mobile Technologies on the Revolutions in the Arab World—A Study of Egypt and Tunisia

Revolts in Tunisia and Egypt have led many observers to speak of the “first digital revolution” in the Arab world. Social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are now recognised as the important tools that facilitated the “Jasmine Revolution”. In fact, the willingness of the Mubarak government to block all internet connection in Egypt has demonstrated the concern over the power of new technologies in facilitating political change. The tenacity of the social movements that are still on-going in the Arab world continues to demonstrate the important role that networked technologies—such as the internet, satellite channels and social networking sites—play in revolutions. The revolutions demonstrate an effective use of social media and other network technologies as an organisational tool, and as a means of asserting pressure on current rulers and future governments. Accordingly, this article seeks to expose freedom of expression as a fundamental democratic principle and the internet network as a vehicle driving the demonstrations in the Arab countries of Tunisia and Egypt.

Corporate communication, sustainability, and social media: It's not easy (really) being green

This empirical research explores how 16 global corporations from four different industry sectors—retail, technology equipment, food/beverage/tobacco, and consumer goods—use social media platforms and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports to communicate about sustainability. Facebook, Twitter, CEO letters from annual reports and CSR/sustainability reports, and other company documentation are examined to compare the content and scope of these firms’ corporate communication. The sample is divided into two subsamples (Green and Not Green firms) using Newsweek's Greenest Company 2012 rankings, and compared for differential use of social media and corporate reports. Results show that communication varies across firm and industry regarding types of sustainability initiatives reported, metrics employed, and communication media utilized, and that Green firms are more active than Not Green firms both in addressing sustainability and in general social media activity. Implications are discussed herein and recommendations are presented for companies seeking to better understand the effective use of social media and sustainability communication.

Economic Development and Social Media: A Strategic Approach for Success

The use of social media for personal, professional and business purposes is rising quickly, as are the number of tools available. Economic development agencies have an excellent opportunity to use social media to effectively deliver their programs and services. Social media tools provide timely, engaging, interactive, targeted and low-cost ways to market a community, gain intelligence, and communicate and build relationships with stakeholders. To make effective use of social media, economic developers must understand the underlying purpose of social media and develop strategies to implement it effectively. Using research and recommendations from social media experts in a variety of disciplines, this paper examines how social media has changed marketing and communications, the purpose of social media, possible applications of social media in economic development, and how to develop an effective social media strategy. By taking a strategic approach to social media, economic developers can use it to achieve their goals.Keywords: social media, economic development, social media strategy, tools and techniques, investment attraction marketing

Using social media to enhance career development opportunities for health promotion professionals.

For health promotion professionals, social media offers many ways to engage with a broader range of colleagues; participate in professional development events; promote expertise, products, or services; and learn about career-enhancing opportunities such as funding and fellowships. Previous work has recommended "building networking into what you are already doing." This article provides updated and new social media resources, as well as practical examples and strategies to promote effective use of social media. Social media offers health promotion professionals cost-effective opportunities to enhance their career by building communities of practice, participating in professional development events, and enriching classroom learning. Developing the skills necessary to use social media for networking is important in the public health workforce, especially as social media is increasingly used in academic and practice settings.

A SWOT Analysis Of Competitive Knowledge From Social Media For A Small Start-Up Business

The analysis of data from social media sites can provide useful decision-making information for businesses; however, can small businesses with limited budgets and limited technical expertise compete in this new social media driven market? This study provides a proof of concept for increasing a company’s competitive knowledge through the use of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) framework model by gathering qualitative data about the use of social media from employee interviews. By increasing the competitive knowledge through evaluating the results of the SWOT analysis, this small start-up company will have a strategic plan for increasing their competitive advantage. The authors present the results of the study in the form of practical recommendations for short-term and long-term implementation. Several of the shortterm and long-term recommendations are substantiated through prior research studies. Future research could include a follow-up study of this company using a SWOT framework tool or other methodologies to indicate what social media tools and strategies provide the most beneficial competitive knowledge for a small business, and why. Additionally, comparing the results from this study with a similar study of a different small start-up business could lead to the design of a model for other small businesses trying to increase their competitive knowledge through the effective use of social media.

Communicating Corporate Brands Through Social Media

The aim of this study is to identify and interpret the main emerging strategic approaches in communicating a corporate brand through social media (SM). A quantitative content analysis of the SM platforms of 60 major international corporate brands yielded data that were processed by hierarchical cluster analysis. The study identified four clusters, characterized by distinctive approaches in terms of interactivity and openness toward corporate brand building via SM. The findings highlighted that despite encouraging signs of effective use of SM for this purpose, the online corporate communication initiatives of more than a third of all companies are characterized as cautious. Corporate branding strategists are advised to adopt conversational forms of corporate communication, to expand the range of SM used and to involve a broad range of stakeholders in the dialogue. This study adds to the limited body of academic research into the use of SM as part of corporate communication and corporate brand-building strategy.

Effective use of social media recruiting

With the rapid evolution of digital media, online presence is becoming a front-runner factor for the success of business and entities, alike. Tapping on the pace of this evolution, socially active employers are transcending towards social media platforms and online portals for attracting and sourcing talent. What attracts these organisations is ease of access, continuous availability, spontaneity and transparency. At forefront of this change is human resources department, which plays the dynamic role of designing strategies for attracting talent digitally while making sure that the digital footprint of the company is constantly evolving. This research paper delineates the digital media presence of nearly 50 companies that are categorised in accordance of industry and employee strength. The paper further probes into the digital practices followed by a selected few of these 50 companies, by studying their efforts in social media, their approach towards change in recruiting policies, benefits derived and management level interventions taken to promote this change.

Effective use of social media for talent acquisition and recruitment

As revealed by the statistics, use of social media for talent acquisition has climbed by about 50% as compared to 2013. Job seekers are increasingly using platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest to contact recruiters. Recruiters are forming various groups and forums on these platforms to headhunt candidates across various geographies. The penetration of social media in recruitment is fuelled by increasing number of internet users, the shortened cycle and tight deadlines for completing the selection process. Decrease in the usage of traditional ways of hiring and the convenience social media bring to the selection process. Looking at the flip side, screening of candidates via social profiles can be time consuming and misleading. This paper focuses on the constructive usage of social media for ensuring expedited filling of vacancies. It discusses how the supporting tools on social media can help recruiters filter and search appropriate candidates for their vacancies.

Social media and health: Current and future healthcare provider perspectives

Objective: As over 80% of active United States internet users are using social media (SM) sites, it is important for healthcare students (HCS) and healthcare professionals (HCP) to become educated on proper SM usage behaviors to effectively understand and apply SM policies. This research was designed to examine HCS and HCP motivations for utilizing SM sites, to determine the concerns HCS and HCP have with SM usage, and if these concerns are being addressed through SM policies and education. Methods: In 2012, 4370 HCS and 4269 HCP from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center participated in the Institutional Review Board approved online survey. Of those contacted, 187 HCS and 180 HCP completed the survey. Applying uses and gratifications theory, the authors conducted a mixed method survey and analyzed HCS and HCP motivations for utilizing SM sites and the concerns associated with SM usage, while simultaneously analyzing whether concerns are being addressed through SM policies and education. Results: Analysis reveals HCS and HCP were motivated by social entertainment, convenience of information, and professional self-expression. In addition, HCS and HCP top concerns associated with SM use in a professional and academic setting are patient privacy. This study also indicates HCP was more aware of their institutional SM policies. Yet, both view SM policies necessary to help educate them on effective SM use. Analysis of the qualitative responses reveals HCS and HCP’s top concerns with SM usage are Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violations and patient privacy. Conclusion: This study offers insight into HCS’ and HCP’ SM motivations and behaviors. It also expands on issues HCS and HCP have with SM usage and if SM policies effectively address these concerns. Future research should examine if and how patients use SM when seeking health information and analyze patient’s opinion of HCS’ and HCP’ usage of SM sites.

Critical Success Factors for Attracting Registered Investment Firm Clients Using Social Media

The use of social media presents today’s financial adviser with a myriad of choices, opportunities and challenges. During the last few years, social media has emerged within the financial services industry without widespread understanding of its usage and application. The metrics of social media engagement across the U.S. and around the world indicate a growing popularity of social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. A significant percentage of registered investment advisory firms are beginning to incorporate social media marketing into their practices. However, research and guidance on the critical success factors for attracting clients using social media are scarce. Through a comprehensive review of the literature available, 12 factors were found to be critical for attracting clients using social media in registered investment firms:1. Strict adherence to regulatory compliance requirements;2. The existence of a social media marketing plan;3. Social media strategy alignment with organizational goals;4. Training for employees and advisers;5. Consistent and effective use of social media;6. Connection building;7. Effective branding of social channels;8. Advance research of prospects and clients;9. The use of Fresh and relevant content;10. Content that educates;11. The establishment of rapport online; and12. Measurement of social media outreach performance.The classification of these factors into the relevant stage (recognition of needs, evaluation of options, resolution of concerns, purchase, implementation) in Rackham’s typical buying process is presented and the importance of each factor is discussed. The thesis concludes with the two main social media barriers facing financial advisers today: compliance concerns and time.

Share it, Pin it, Tweet it: Effective Use of Social Media for Wildlife Rehabilitation

Flustered by Facebook®? Troubled by Twitter®? Perplexed by Pinterest®? This article provides an overview of the most effective social media tools today—with an emphasis on how nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation centers and organizations can use social media to support their wildlife work. Learn how to effectively and professionally share stories with others while garnering organizational support.

Free online tools for education

Continuing her series of articles on the effective use of social media and digital tools by schools, Jennifer Begg looks at some free online resources that might prove useful to teachers.

Implementation of Communication in Social Media by Promoting Studies at Higher Education Institutions

New technologies penetrate into all spheres of our lives and shifts personal communication as well as traditional communication between customers and organizations; provide all the participants of communication with more possibilities. Economic crisis promotes internet-based communication and stimulates organizations to look for cheaper possibilities, i. e. to integrate social media into relations building, public relations and other activities. Recent theoretical and practical scientific studies emphasize the importance of the development of social media ideas and its integration into organizations’ communication activities, which used in appropriate way, can help to reach the appointed results: to present and to sell services or goods, to build brand value or to maintain two-way relations with target audiences, etc. Social media is changing the traditional marketing paradigm and stimulates new attitudes toward relations between organizations and consumers, where information flows bilateral, direct and effectively, may be diffused in social networks by consumers’ wishes and can help to strengthen organization positions in the market. Therefore scientists recommend organizations to appraise the value of every member of virtual communities and to communicate in correct way: adding value, helping to solve problems, educating and etc. The article concentrates on the attitude which organizations have to have for successful social media, implementation and achievement of organizational goals. Different departments of organization should be involved in more effective use of social media. Business organizations have to consider both positive and negative social media application aspects in order to avoid certain risks. The negative aspect of social media that is mostly appointed by scientists is the lack of control mechanism: message content, timing and frequency. In order to avoid the risks related with communication in social media organizations have to plan social media implementation process. The main objective of this research is to build up the structural model of communication in social media and to test the application perspectives of the model for study promotion in public higher education institutions. The result of theoretical analysis is an original model of communication in social media. The steps of the model implementation are: environment and competitors’ analysis preparation of communication strategy, selection of appropriate channels, communication process, monitoring, assessment and comparison of results. The theoretical model of communication in social media includes not only the process of communication between the organization and consumers, but also the stages of preparation and assessment that are also important in the evaluation of implementation of the overall communication strategy. A case study of Lithuanian state higher education institutions was used to reveal the possible application of the suggested model of communication in social media in the promotion of higher education studies in social media. The communication of higher education institutions in social media is important since active involvement of prospective students in communication in social media can help prospective students to choose the university where he or she would like to study. Social media presents a university as „live“, communicating and caring about current and prospective students. The study on communication in social media by promoting studies at Lithuanian higher education institutions showed that the suggested model of communication in social media of business organizations can be successfully applied to the communication of universities in social media. The popularization of higher education institutions and involvement of prospective students should originate from environment analysis and planning as well as benefit assessment that may be gained by social media.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.23.2.1550

Social Media Intelligence in the Exploration of National Cultural Dimensions for Online Social Communities

Companies are increasingly embracing the use of social media in global online communities as an important part of their business strategies. Use of social media enables organizations to extend their reach and engage with customers in a shared community. These provide forums for interacting with customers and collecting information so that companies can better make informed decisions that directly relate to customer needs. However, effective use of social media requires matching both organizational and user requirements with the features of the social media. To support the development of successful social communities, this research uses Hofstede’s dimensions to examine the impact of user’s national culture on social media feature preference in a global international scuba diving online community. Specifically, this paper focuses on the Hofstede’s Individualism and Collectivism (IC) dimension which the study found is a significant determinant of feature preferences.